Dauphin
name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The eldest son of the king of France. Under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties, the Dauphin of France, generally shortened to Dauphin, was heir apparent to the throne of France. The title derived from the main title of the Dauphin, Dauphin of Viennois.
- 2 The title of a dauphin.
"Coordinate term: Dauphine"
- 3 formerly, the eldest son of the King of France and direct heir to the throne wordnet
- 4 An eldest son. figuratively
""I wish we were back in Tenth Street. But so many children came[…]and the Tenth Street house wasn't half big enough; and a dreadful speculative builder built this house and persuaded Austin to buy it. Oh, dear, and here we are among the rich and great; and the steel kings and copper kings and oil kings and their heirs and dauphins.[…]""
- 1 A placename:; A commune of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, France.
- 2 A placename:; A city in Manitoba, Canada.
- 3 A placename:; A rural municipality in western Manitoba, which surrounds the city; in full, the Rural Municipality of Dauphin.
- 4 A placename:; A borough in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States.
- 5 A placename:; An unincorporated community in Henderson County, Texas, United States.
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"In the wild wilderness, a leopard mother caresses her cub, as Hagar did Ishmael; or a queen of France the dauphin."
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English Dauphin, from Middle French dauphin, from Old French dalphin, from Latin delphinus; the modern pronunciation is sometimes remodelled on Modern French. Doublet of dolphin.
From French Dauphin or French dauphin.
Related phrases
More for "dauphin"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.